Single lesson
Isaiah 5: The Song of the Vineyard
Isaiah 5:1–7; Isaiah 5:8–30
Isaiah 5:1–7 is a song about a vineyard that becomes an explanation of God’s complaint against his people. The poem moves from careful planting, to disappointment, to judgement, and finally to a plain statement of what the vineyard means. This lesson also brings together Woes to the Wicked.
Before you teach
In this passage, the speaker sings about a beloved person and his vineyard, then calls the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah to judge the case. At the end, the poem explains that the vineyard stands for the house of Israel and the men of Judah.
Explain the central teaching of Isaiah 5: The Song of the Vineyard, using two details from the reading. This song teaches that Yahweh expected justice and righteousness from his people, but the fruit he found was oppression and distress. Isaiah 5:8–30 teaches that rejecting Yahweh’s ways through greed, pride, and injustice leads to humbling judgement.
Welcome: Isaiah 5: The Song of the Vineyard
5 minIntroduce “The Song of the Vineyard”, “Woes to the Wicked” and locate Isaiah 5:1–7; Isaiah 5:8–30. This song teaches that Yahweh expected justice and righteousness from his people, but the fruit he found was oppression and distress. Invite each learner to name a detail or question they will listen for.
Isaiah 5:1, Isaiah 5:4, Isaiah 5:7
Read and explain the passage
12 minThe Song of the Vineyard (Isaiah 5:1–7): The passage opens as a song for a beloved about his vineyard. The vineyard is placed on a very fruitful hill, which shows a setting prepared for growth. This is poetry, so the vineyard is part of the song’s picture before its meaning is explained later in the passage.
Woes to the Wicked (Isaiah 5:8–30): The first woe condemns people who keep joining house to house and field to field until others are squeezed out. Yahweh says the result will be the opposite of what they sought: many fine houses will be empty, and fertile land will produce very little. Greed ends in loss, not fullness.
Read the selected verses together, pausing at “The Song of the Vineyard”, “Woes to the Wicked”. Use the source reading below and check the explanation against the words of the passage.
Isaiah 5:1, Isaiah 5:8, Isaiah 5:9, Isaiah 5:10
Discuss the details and their meaning
8 minUse the three questions below. Begin with “Which details in the song show how much care the vineyard owner gave before expecting fruit?” and allow time to find the supporting verses. Isaiah 5:8–30 teaches that rejecting Yahweh’s ways through greed, pride, and injustice leads to humbling judgement. Ask learners to explain which details support their answer and to identify a question they would like to explore further.
Isaiah 5:2, Isaiah 5:3, Isaiah 5:4, Isaiah 5:20
Make and respond: Vision and message evidence map
12 minWork on “Isaiah 5: The Song of the Vineyard: Vision and message evidence map”. Follow the materials and steps below, using “The Song of the Vineyard”, “Woes to the Wicked” as reading headings. Each learner should include at least two accurate details and their verse references. Share one observation from the finished sheet and explain how it connects with the central teaching.
Isaiah 5:1, Isaiah 5:16, Isaiah 5:30
Closing: return to Woes to the Wicked
3 minRevisit Isaiah 5:8–30. Invite a learner to summarise what the group has learned about Woes to the Wicked and another to support the summary with a verse. Give learners a moment to complete their response sheet. They can share a question or, if appropriate for the group, join the optional prayer.
Isaiah 5:8, Isaiah 5:19, Isaiah 5:30
Questions to explore
Which details in the song show how much care the vineyard owner gave before expecting fruit?
Look closely at the actions listed in the vineyard: clearing, planting, building, and preparing for a harvest.
Isaiah 5:2
Why does the poem ask Jerusalem and Judah to judge between the owner and the vineyard?
Notice how the questions in the middle of the passage lead listeners to consider whether the vineyard had any excuse.
Isaiah 5:3, Isaiah 5:4
Which images in this passage describe people twisting what is morally true?
List the exact contrasts Isaiah uses for good and evil, light and darkness, and bitter and sweet.
Isaiah 5:20
Make, think or respond
Isaiah 5: The Song of the Vineyard: Vision and message evidence map
What you’ll need
- plain paper or card
- pencils or pens
- a Bible or the source reading on this page
Try it together
- Fold a sheet into three panels or draw three columns. Label them “What the passage describes”, “What is explained in the text”, “What question remains”.
- Read Isaiah 5:1–7; Isaiah 5:8–30. Use “The Song of the Vineyard”, “Woes to the Wicked” as your reading headings and add a short quotation or detail with its verse reference to each panel.
- Compare your notes with a partner. Check that every quotation is accurate and every conclusion has support in the passage.
- Circle an explanation the passage itself provides. Leave unexplained details as questions for further reading.
The finished sheet keeps the details of Isaiah 5: The Song of the Vineyard connected to their Bible references and gives the group a way to explain what they noticed.
Adapt for your group
- For learners who need more support, prepare the reading headings “The Song of the Vineyard”, “Woes to the Wicked” and let them match short quotations to the correct heading.
- For confident readers, compare two sections of Isaiah 5:1–7; Isaiah 5:8–30. Ask for a written explanation with two supporting references and one question that the text leaves open.
An optional closing prayer
“God, help us listen carefully as we read Isaiah 5:1–7; Isaiah 5:8–30. Help us understand what we have read, ask thoughtful questions and respond with care for others. Amen.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Isaiah 5
1 Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
2 He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
3 “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
5 Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.
6 I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned or hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression, for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
8 Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land!
9 In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied.
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah.”
11 Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!
12 The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they don’t respect the work of Yahweh, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.
13 Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, their multitude, their pomp, and he who rejoices among them, descend into it.
15 So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled;
16 but Yahweh of Armies is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.
17 Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope,
19 who say, “Let him make haste, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!”
20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
22 Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink;
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent!
24 Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have rejected the law of Yahweh of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore Yahweh’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out.
26 He will lift up a banner to the nations from far away, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly.
27 No one shall be weary nor stumble among them; no one shall slumber nor sleep, neither shall the belt of their waist be untied, nor the strap of their sandals be broken,
28 whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their roaring will be like a lioness. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they shall roar, and seize their prey and carry it off, and there will be no one to deliver.
30 They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.